Are you saying that this is less a case of lack of education and more a case of willful ignorance?

A few points...

There is ignorance... and then there is cognitive dissonance... and it affects all parts of society...Public Officials lie all the time...Senior Executives fudge on their resumes..."Martial Arts Masters" create fictional titles...Birthers...etc etc...

Cognitive Dissonance (aka "willful" ignorance) has exploded in our culture over the last decade...There are still people who insist the Moon Landing was staged...This is not a new phenomena... but with all the new media technologies and 24 hour news cycle the amount of BS that saturates our daily lives is sometimes overwhelming...Add this to the tribal nature of most folks and you have millions of folks believing their own BS and having it reinforced by an echo chamber of yes men...

So while we may be the "problem" we are also the solution...to whit

"Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's welcome."-Charles Mackay

Another apropos quote-"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." Charles MacKay

MacKay's Book was written almost two hundred years ago and yet his prescient observations still ring true (On Steroids no less)

The good news is that because of the same Media Communication Revolution these barkers can not just pack up their wagons and move to the next State to sell their snake oils to the next group of unsuspecting rubes...

Sadly though some folks will insist upon believing that what they wish to be true despite any acknowledgement of facts to the contrary...Hence... Cognitive Dissonance.

My advice is slow and steady will win the day... After many years of exposing frauds in the Special Operations world... I seldom let my blood pressure rise anymore...I just firmly and persistently provide the facts and let people come to their own conclusions. You can't make crazy people sane or sane people crazy...they do that all by themselves.